Grace, P. and Coulson, G. and Blair, Gordon S. and Mathy, L. and Duce, D. and Cooper, C. and Yeung, W. K. and Cai, W. (2004) GRIDKIT: Pluggable overlay networks for Grid computing. In: ON THE MOVE TO MEANINGFUL INTERNET SYSTEMS 2004: COOPLS, DOA, AND ODBASE, PT 2, PROCEEDINGS :. SPRINGER-VERLAG BERLIN, Agia Napa, pp. 1463-1481. ISBN 3-540-23662-7
Abstract
A `second generation' approach to the provision of Grid middleware is now emerging which is built on service-oriented architecture and web services standards and technologies. However, advanced Grid applications have significant demands that are not addressed by present-day web services platforms. As one prime example, current platforms do not support the rich diversity of communication `interaction types' that are demanded by advanced applications (e.g. publish-subscribe, media streaming, peer-to-peer interaction). In the paper we describe the Gridkit middleware which augments the basic service-oriented architecture to address this particular deficiency. We particularly focus on the communications infrastructure support required to support multiple interaction types in a unified, principled and extensible manner-which we present in terms of the novel concept of pluggable overlay networks.